Butler is as much above Scarron as a man accustomed to good company is above a singer at a pot-house. The hero of "Hudibras" was a real personage, one Sir Samuel Luke, who had been a captain in the armies of Fairfax and Cromwell. See the commencement of the poem, in the article "Prior," "Butler," and "Swift." Garth's poem on the physicians and apothecaries is not so much in the burlesque style as Boileau's "Lutrin": it has more imagination, variety, and naivete than the "Lutrin"; and, which is rather astonishing, it displays profound erudition, embellished with all the graces of refinement. It begins thus: Speak, Goddess, since 'tis thou that best canst tell How ancient leagues to modern discord fell; And why physicians were so cautious grown Of others' lives, and lavish of their own. Prior, whom we have seen a plenipotentiary in France before the Peace of Utrecht, assumed the office of mediator between the philosophers who dispute about the soul. This poem is in the style of "Hudibras," called doggerel rhyme, which is the _stilo Berniesco_ of the Italians. The great first question is, whether the soul is all in all, or is lodged behind the nose and eyes in a corner which it never quits. According to the latter system, Prior compares it to the pope, who constantly remains at Rome, whence he sends his nuncios and spies to learn all that is doing in Christendom. Prior, after making a jest of several systems, proposes his own. He remarks that the two-legged animal, new-born, throws its feet about as much as possible, when its nurse is so stupid as to swaddle it: thence he judges that the soul enters it by the feet; that about fifteen it reaches the middle; then it ascends to the heart; then to the head, which it quits altogether when the animal ceases to live. At the end of this singular poem, full of ingenious versification, and of ideas alike subtle and pleasing, we find this charming line of Fontenelle: _"Il est des hochets pour tout âge."_ Prior begs of fortune to "Give us play-things for old age." Yet it is quite certain that Fontenelle did not take this line from Prior, nor Prior from Fontenelle. Prior's work is twenty years anterior, and Fontenelle did not understand English. The poem terminates with this conclusion: For Plato's fancies what care I? I hope you would not have me die Like simple Cato in the play, For anything that he can say: E'en let him of ideas speak To heathens, in his native Greek. If to be sad is to be wise, I do most heartily despise Whatever Socrates has said, Or Tully writ, or Wanley read. Dear Drift, to set our matters right, Remove these papers from my sight; Burn Mat's Descartes and Aristotle-- Here, Jonathan,--your master's bottle.